Biography and scientific achievements of Professor Andrzej Nadolski, archaeologist, expert on historical weapons and medievalist are well known. However, few people know that both his professional and non-professional interests have already been formed before the World War II when he was just a young boy. He grew up in a family of noble descent and insurrectionary traditions. One of the most important person for Andrzej Nadolski was his father, the military doctor in the rank of colonel who was a true role model due to his patriotic believes, deep knowledge and love of nature. Since he was young, Andrzej Nadolski knew how to use firearms. He travelled on horseback and practiced fencing. He knew the base of military tactics as well. Moreover, he was interested in history and nature. Until his death, the great passion of professor Andrzej Nadolski was entomology, to which he very often devoted his free time. He could also play the piano, he wrote a small forms of poetry and drew funny and satirical drawings. Many of his works have survived in the home archive. He had a very broad and diverse knowledge. As a university lecturer, he was an excellent promoter and populariser of science. He was a classic example of a naturalist-humanist – an attitude typical of researchers in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Natural History Museum, Department of Experimental Zoology and Evolutionary Bio- logy, University of Łódź, is a continuator of the Municipal Natural History Museum in Łódź which was created in 1930. The present Museum collection contains over 100 000 specimens, encompassing many taxonomic groups of animals from all over the world. Insects are the most numerous, in particular butterflies, estimated at around 45 000, hymenoptera, around 25 000 and coleoptera, around 14 000. Among particularly valued and generally known exhibits there is a complete skeleton of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), found in the Tatras and reconstructed by Edward Potęga, the aurochs’ skull (Bos primigenius), a spider crab preparation (Macrocheira kaempferi), as well as collections of Polish birds representing an almost complete array of species from Central Poland, Polish butterflies collected by Zygmunt Śliwiński and a collection of skeletons prepared by Izydor Siemieniuk. Many exhibits , both vertebrates and invertebrates, are of historical value and come from the early 20th-century collections.
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